Primitive Reflexes and Babies

Usually I work with children and adults who have retained primitive reflexes which then interfere with their lives. If

you've never come across Primitive Reflexes before, these are the movement patterns that all babies make that help to develop their central nervous system. Primitive Reflees should be able to express their movement pattern and then integrate into the nervous system and lie dormant, so when reflexes are integrated, their movemeht pattern should no longer be present. When reflexes are unintegrated or retained, they will exhibit their movement pattern when tested and also other physical, mental and emotional characteristic symptoms. It is these characteristic symptoms which cause people problems and why we need to encourage them to integrate - at any age!

The term Primitive Reflexes tend to cover four types of reflexive movements;

Uterine Reflexes - develop and integrate while in the womb

Primitive Reflexes - develop in the womb and integrate after birth

Transitional Reflexes - develop after birth and will integrate

Postural Reflexes - develop after birth and don't integrate (these are reflexes that help keep you upright!)

Primitive Reflexes are movement patterns, so we use a movement programme to encourage reflexes to integrate and so relieve some of these characteristic symptoms. For example a retained Moro Reflex may create behavioural issues such as meltdowns, sensory processing problems, auditory or visual processing issues. A retained Spinal Galant Reflex may cause excessive fidgeting, late bedwetting, problems with listening and issues with waistbands. A retained Asymmetric Tonic Neck Reflex may cause problems with co-ordination, problems with left and right, issues with handwriting, reading, maths and organisation. Retained Reflexes tend to cause more problems for people who are neurodivergent - people with autism, ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia, etc, so following a movement programme can reduce the more difficult aspects of these neurodevelopmental conditions.

Few people have heard of Primitive Reflexes and they tend to only find out about them when there is a problem. I think that if more people were aware of Primitive Reflexes, how to recognise the movement patterns and how to naturally encourage them to integrate at the appropriste time, we would be able to prevent so many issues as children grow, especially those children who are neurodivergent. To be clear, this isn't about "curing" neurodevelopmental conditions, but about reducing the difficult symptoms of these conditions. Improving behaviour, reducing anxiety, helping with better focus and concentration, making reading and writing easier.. To help with this I have written a course for babies, for people with babies or people who work with babies, to identify those reflex patterns and easy ways to encourage these reflexes to integrate, so that our babies grow into children who are able to fulfill their potential.

This course is primarily delivered online, over Zoom. I have a number of time options, a full day 10am - 3pm, over two evenings 7.30pm - 10pm and two mornings 10am - 12.30pm. If you would like to book on a course then please click on this link Understanding Primitive Reflexes in Babies if you have any questions, please email me Niki@OrganisedMind.co.uk